MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. (WSVN) - He is a coach many people are familiar with in South Florida. One local university now has that coach and his son back together again on the staff as a two for one deal that has proven to payoff so far.
Former Miami Hurricanes and FIU head coach Butch Davis is back in college football. This time, it feels like he is in one of his favorite movies.
“Like the Godfather, it’s like I’m out there, but they keep sucking me back in,” Butch said.
The return for Butch means a different challenge.
For the first time in 50 years, he is not on the sidelines.
Butch is now an analyst for the St. Thomas University football team, an NAIA school.
“Well, I’m not trying to dictate to them and say, ‘Well, you got to do this, you got to do that.’ It’s like, here’s the things that I have watched from high school, when I was a high school coach, to Oklahoma State, to Miami, to the Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns, all the places that I’ve been,” Butch said.
Butch is once again working with his son Drew, the Bobcats wide receiver and tight-ends coach. Drew was an assistant with his dad at FIU.
“For him and I, it’s always been football. It’s in our life and our blood. We’ve always been able to communicate on that level,” Drew said. “It was different when he was the head coach, obviously, but having him around is still a great, great thing.”
“All I can do with him or any of the other assistant coaches is to give them an opportunity to ask questions, ‘What do you think about this? What’s a good idea? Have you ever seen this? What have you done?'” Butch said.
At this stage of his life, Butch holds no animosity towards FIU despite his firing last season.
“A lot of things behind the scenes really were not, were not really positive things, but going to ball games the first three years, winning nine games, winning the bowl game and then obviously, for FIU to win the game against the University of Miami was unbelievable. I mean that may be, you know, it’s in the top five or six games that I’ve ever coached,” Butch said.
Bobcats head coach Bill Rychel said after Sunday’s 52-nothing win against North American University, having both Davises brings a well of experience to help the program.
Right now, St. Thomas University’s football ranking is 2-to-1 and is in the top 25 in NAIA ranking.
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